Mac OS X – AddictiveTipshttps://www.addictivetips.comTech tips to make you smarterSun, 18 Feb 2018 04:00:35 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.4How To Force Quit Multiple Apps On Your Desktophttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/addictivetips/OSX/~3/mue1glmR8io/https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/force-quit-multiple-apps-on-your-desktop/#respondTue, 13 Feb 2018 18:55:13 +0000https://www.addictivetips.com/?p=242747You can quit an unresponsive app on both Windows and macOS. On Windows it’s pretty easy to do via the Task Manager. Since most users have heard of and used the Task Manager at some point, quitting an app isn’t something that’s complicated. Likewise, macOS users know there’s a Force Quit option under the Apple […]

]]>You can quit an unresponsive app on both Windows and macOS. On Windows it’s pretty easy to do via the Task Manager. Since most users have heard of and used the Task Manager at some point, quitting an app isn’t something that’s complicated. Likewise, macOS users know there’s a Force Quit option under the Apple menu on the menu bar. What users of both operating systems may not be aware of is that you can fore quit multiple apps in as well. On Windows, you’re going to need a third party app to do this but on macOS the feature has been built in for ages.

Force Quit Multiple Apps On Windows 10

Windows comes with its own Task Manager which lets you force end a task i.e. app or process. Unfortunately, it doesn’t let you force close multiple apps. To do that, you need a third party task manager and you’re going to be spoiled for choice.

Ultimate Process Killer is a free third-party task manager for Windows that lets you force quit multiple apps and processes. Select the processes you want to force close, and click the ‘Kill selected processes’ button.

Be warned that this app will list essential processes needed to keep Windows running. If you don’t know what a process is, and you quit it, you might crash Windows or freeze it. The damage won’t be permanent but you can lose unsaved work. Make sure you only quit an app process.

Force Quit Multiple Apps On macOS

On macOS, you don’t need a third party app to force quit multiple apps. You can quit them the same way you quit a single app with one small modification. First, open the force quit menu via the keyboard shortcut Command + Option + Esc.

When the menu appears, select multiple apps by holding down the Shift or Command key. The Shift key lets you select apps in order, and the Command key lets you select them out of order. Click the Force Quit button to force quit the selected apps.

The reason macOS makes this so easy and Windows simply doesn’t let you do it is because Windows doesn’t just list apps in the Task Manager. Likewise, third-party task manager apps also do not limit themselves to just apps. They list processes and an end user cannot always tell the difference between the two. macOS doesn’t do that. It lists apps and nothing else so it’s much safer to use. There’s a distinction between the Force Quit app menu and the Activity Monitor which make it safe.

]]>https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/force-quit-multiple-apps-on-your-desktop/feed/0https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/force-quit-multiple-apps-on-your-desktop/How To Unlock Your Mac With Your Android Fingerprint Sensorhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/addictivetips/OSX/~3/DAGwz2BDV_Y/https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/unlock-your-mac-with-your-android-fingerprint-sensor/#respondFri, 09 Feb 2018 18:55:58 +0000https://www.addictivetips.com/?p=242157Fingerprint unlocking has been a thing for a long time. PCs come with fingerprint readers that can unlock the desktop and these fingerprint readers have been around long before Apple introduced Touch ID or Android added support for a fingerprint sensor. Only Macs have been left out. Apple never added a fingerprint reader to its […]

]]>Fingerprint unlocking has been a thing for a long time. PCs come with fingerprint readers that can unlock the desktop and these fingerprint readers have been around long before Apple introduced Touch ID or Android added support for a fingerprint sensor. Only Macs have been left out. Apple never added a fingerprint reader to its Macs even though lots of laptops have them. Apple hasn’t even added FaceID to its Macbooks while Windows has Windows Hello. If you use a Mac and own an Android phone, DroidID is a free Android app you should check out. It lets you unlock your Mac with your Android fingerprint sensor.

Requirements

There are some system limitations that come with this app. In order to use it, you need to install a Mac client (also free) and your Android phone must of course have a fingerprint sensor. Additionally you need;

A Mac running El Capitan (macOS 10.12) or above.

Keychains enabled on your Mac

A Samsung phone running Android 6 or any other Android phone running Android 7 or above provided both have a fingerprint sensor.

At least one fingerprint configured on your Android phone under Settings>Security & Location

Unlock Mac With Android Fingerprint Sensor

On your Android phone, install DroidID. On your Mac, download and install the DroidID mac client. Run the client on your Mac, and open DroidID on your phone. When you first launch the app, it will give you a code.

Enter it on your Mac inside the app’s client, and give it the password needed to unlock your Mac.

The Mac client will restart after this and it may ask for access to Keychains. If it does, allow it the access it needs. That’s all you need to do to set the app up.

DroidID works when your system locks automatically e.g. when your system goes to sleep. If you lock it via the Apple menu bar, DroidID will not be able to unlock your Mac. Likewise, when you first boot your system, DroidID will not be able to unlock it. This is on-par with how fingerprint unlocking works on both iOS and Android. If a phone restarts or turns on, your fingerprint cannot unlock it. You have to enter a passcode or password to unlock the device. The same rule applies to your Mac. If you restart or boot, you need to enter your password.

DroidID doesn’t store your Mac’s password. It remains on your system inside Keychain so you don’t have to worry about the app stealing it. You can unlink a Mac or an Android phone from the respective apps any time you want.

]]>https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/unlock-your-mac-with-your-android-fingerprint-sensor/feed/0https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/unlock-your-mac-with-your-android-fingerprint-sensor/How To Adjust Screen Brightness To Battery Charge On macOShttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/addictivetips/OSX/~3/_qZOQreI9Cc/https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/adjust-screen-brightness-to-battery-charge-on-macos/#respondThu, 25 Jan 2018 18:42:23 +0000https://www.addictivetips.com/?p=239251Macbooks have an auto-brightness feature like iPhones and iPads. This auto-brightness feature adjusts the screen’s brightness according to the brightness of the room. It’s useful for preventing strain on your eyes. If you’ve ever had a chance to use a Windows machine though, you’ll know that in addition to auto-brightness, the OS also lets you […]

]]>Macbooks have an auto-brightness feature like iPhones and iPads. This auto-brightness feature adjusts the screen’s brightness according to the brightness of the room. It’s useful for preventing strain on your eyes. If you’ve ever had a chance to use a Windows machine though, you’ll know that in addition to auto-brightness, the OS also lets you set a specific brightness level for when you’re on battery power. To date, macOS doesn’t have anything like that. Meet Bittery; it’s an exceptionally clever app that can adjust screen brightness to battery charge levels. If you’re low on battery, it will dim your screen.

Screen Brightness To Battery Charge

Bittery doesn’t have an customization options. This is both good and bad. Good because it will work without you having to set anything up. Bad because it doesn’t let you set a minimum brightness level that your screen should not go below. It adds a battery icon to the menu bar and little else. There’s no way to hide the icon. To quit Bittery, click the menu bar icon and select the quit option.

Energy Saver Features

If you’re looking to make your battery last longer when you’re on the go, you should also look into the Energy Saver options that macOS natively supports. Again, they’re nothing like the power plan management that Windows has had for years but they’re something. The Energy saver options allow you to put hard disks to sleep, choose when your system sleeps and when your display sleeps when you’re running on battery power.

Apple prides itself on the battery life users can get from Macbooks but that shouldn’t mean the company can’t add better power managing tools to macOS. It doesn’t have to replicate what Windows has to offer. It can come up with something better or it can take hint from the Battery Saver mode it introduced in iOS a few years ago.

The battery saver mode in iOS works with auto-brightness so that you never have too dim a screen. It doesn’t dim your screen but it will override the default screen wake time on your iPhone or iPad and put the display to sleep sooner. At present, the battery saver mode on iOS has to be turned on by a user. iOS doesn’t let you automate it but that doesn’t make the feature useless or ill suited to be ported to macOS. If Apple were to port the feature to macOS, it would have to tweak things but users would generally appreciate being able to adjust more system settings when they’re on battery power.

]]>https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/adjust-screen-brightness-to-battery-charge-on-macos/feed/0https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/adjust-screen-brightness-to-battery-charge-on-macos/How To Automatically Enable Do Not Disturb While Screen Sharing Your Desktop [macOS]http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/addictivetips/OSX/~3/NTlDpuLv7KI/https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/automatically-enable-do-not-disturb-while-screen-sharing/#respondMon, 22 Jan 2018 18:51:02 +0000https://www.addictivetips.com/?p=238251There’s nothing like a notification to interrupt a meeting. Meetings are no longer confined to a single room. They’re virtual and there are apps dedicated to making virtual meetings possible and they come with video chat and screen sharing tools. Unfortunately, these tools don’t have much control over your system’s notifications. Muzzle is an app […]

]]>There’s nothing like a notification to interrupt a meeting. Meetings are no longer confined to a single room. They’re virtual and there are apps dedicated to making virtual meetings possible and they come with video chat and screen sharing tools. Unfortunately, these tools don’t have much control over your system’s notifications. Muzzle is an app built specifically for this purpose. It automatically enables Do Not Disturb while screen sharing is active on your desktop. At present, it support Slack, FaceTime, BlueJeans, Google Hangouts, and Join.me. Unfortunately, it doesn’t support Skype just now at least not reliably. The developer doesn’t list it among the supported apps but past change logs show that it has trouble detecting when screen sharing in Skype is in progress.

Enable Do Not Disturb While Screen Sharing

Download and run Muzzle. In order for the app to work, you need to give it access to accessibility settings. That’s really all the set-up required for Muzzle to run.

Muzzle runs quietly in the menu bar. When you start sharing your screen over one of the supported apps, it automatically enables Do Not Disturb so that no notifications appear on your screen and interrupt or embarrass you during a meeting.

Muzzle doesn’t silence notifications itself. It relies wholly on macOS’ Do Not Disturb feature which, as you know, allows you to add exceptions. With Muzzle running and Do Not Disturb enabled, those exceptions that you added will still be there and you will see alerts that you’ve allowed even when Do Not Disturb is on.

Screencasts & Games

Muzzle is built for embarrassment free screen sharing. It’s basically there to keep notifications off your screen if you can’t remember to enable Do Not Disturb before you start a call or screen sharing session. Of course, this isn’t the only niche where an app like this could be useful. The app can be equally useful to anyone who regularly records screencasts. In order to do that it would have to support screencasting apps and it can start with QuickTime.

Games are another area where the app could be useful whereby if you’re playing a game in full screen mode, Do Not Disturb will be enabled automatically. This is by no means simple because there are a lot of games out there and there’s also the fact that a notification doesn’t interrupt a game the same way it interrupts a screen sharing session. That said, the concept is great and it has lots of other areas where it can be useful.

]]>https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/automatically-enable-do-not-disturb-while-screen-sharing/feed/0https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/automatically-enable-do-not-disturb-while-screen-sharing/How To Track Data Usage By Netflixhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/addictivetips/OSX/~3/fktngnCoiCI/https://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/track-data-usage-by-netflix/#respondThu, 18 Jan 2018 15:59:47 +0000https://www.addictivetips.com/?p=237107Services like Netflix and Hulu consume a lot of bandwidth. This isn’t a design flaw of any sort with the services. They stream media, often in HD, so it stands to reason that they will consume a lot of data. If your data usage is out of control and you’ve been binging on Netflix a […]

]]>Services like Netflix and Hulu consume a lot of bandwidth. This isn’t a design flaw of any sort with the services. They stream media, often in HD, so it stands to reason that they will consume a lot of data. If your data usage is out of control and you’ve been binging on Netflix a bit too much, you might want to know just how much of your data consumption is because of Netflix, and how much of it is other stuff. Here’s how you can track data usage by Netflix, and limit it.

Data Usage By Netflix – Windows

This section deals with data usage by the official Netflix app for Windows 10. If you prefer to watch Netflix in Edge, but do not use Edge for normal browsing, this section will work for you as well. If the browser that you watch Netflix in is the same one you use for your normal, everyday browsing, skip to the browser section of this article.

Windows 10 has a built-in data monitoring tool. It can give you stats for both a Wi-Fi and Ethernet connection. The usage is broken down on a per-app basis. You can view usage for the last 30 days.

Open the Settings app and go to Network & Internet. Select the Data Usage tab and click ‘View usage details’.

Scroll down to the Netflix app, or if you watch Netflix in Edge, scroll down to view data usage by Edge.

Data Usage By Netflix – macOS

macOS does not have a dedicated Netflix app. Users are therefore forced to use a browser if they want to watch Netflix. Skip ahead to the browsers section.

Data Usage By Netflix – iOS & Android

Smartphones connect with both a WiFi network and a cellular network. If you want to monitor data usage by Netflix on your cellular network, you do not need any extra tools. Both iOS and Android come with tools built into the OS for monitoring cellular data usage on a per-app basis.

Cellular Network

On iOS, open the Settings app and go to Cellular. Wait for the list of apps to load under the Cellular Data connection to view how much data the Netflix app has used.

On Android (Oreo), open the Settings app and go to Network & Internet. Tap Data Usage and then Mobile Data Usage. Look for the Netflix app to view data consumption.

WiFi Network

On both iOS and Android, you need an app that can monitor data on a per-app, per-connection basis if you want view data usage by Netflix over a WiFi network. There are quite a few different apps out there that fit the bill. If you’re looking for something free, we recommend My Data Manager which is available for both iOS and Android. In order to work, it will install a VPN to monitor network traffic which can be a problem if you use a VPN for Netflix.

Data Usage By Netflix – Browsers

Browsers are a little complicated when it comes to monitoring data on a per-site basis. Some browsers, like Chrome, will let you view total data usage but will not break the information down on a per-domain basis. Fortunately, most mainstream browsers have a developer console that can track Network usage.

Open Netflix in your browser and tap the F12 key. Select the Network tab. If your browser supports it, select the ‘log’ option and refresh the page. Watch Netflix and at the end of a binge, you can see how much data was used. You will need to do this for every single Netflix session as browsers don’t actively monitor a domain for network usage.

Limit Data Usage By Netflix

Netflix apps let you limit how much data is used. You cannot force it to use a certain amount of data however, you can force it to use less or more data. This is done by limiting the quality of the video that Netflix will stream. If you’re watching on your desktop, you have to set the playback quality from your account settings.

Sign in to Netflix and click your profile icon at the top right and select Account. On Account settings, click Playback Settings under My Profile, and select playback quality. This will set the playback quality for your profile. Other profiles in your account will use the maximum quality that is available on your account.

On iOS and Android, go to the Netflix app’s settings. Under Video Quality, select Standard to force Netflix to consume less data. This will apply to streaming over both cellular and WiFi networks.

]]>https://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/track-data-usage-by-netflix/feed/0https://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/track-data-usage-by-netflix/How To Specify Equalizer Settings Per-Song In iTuneshttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/addictivetips/OSX/~3/gTf5Vi-Trng/https://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/specify-equalizer-settings-per-song-in-itunes/#respondTue, 02 Jan 2018 18:35:51 +0000https://www.addictivetips.com/?p=234267Music players, the good ones, have built-in equalizers. Normally, the equalizer is a one-size-fits-all setting. You can select any one type of sound to adjust for and the music will be balanced for it. Alternatively, you can usually set custom equalizer levels. Regardless if you use a preset or a custom setting, it will apply […]

]]>Music players, the good ones, have built-in equalizers. Normally, the equalizer is a one-size-fits-all setting. You can select any one type of sound to adjust for and the music will be balanced for it. Alternatively, you can usually set custom equalizer levels. Regardless if you use a preset or a custom setting, it will apply uniformly to all music. The one exception is iTunes. As terrible as iTunes is, it does a reasonably good job of writing metadata to your music files. If you use the app to sync your music, you can use it to specify equalizer settings per-song.

This works in the current version of iTunes as well as much older versions.

Equalizer Settings Per-Song

Open iTunes and go to your Music library. Select the Songs list view from the column on the left. Once you have all your songs listed, right-click the ‘Name’ field at the very top. A rather large menu of additional columns that you can enable will open. In this menu, look for and select the Equalizer option.

Once the Equalizer column has been enabled, you can specify equalizer settings per-song. Click the up/down button in the Equalizer column next to a song.

A menu will open listing all the different equalizer settings. Select the one that suits the song, and you’re done. Repeat for every single song in your music library. When you sync music to your iPhone or iPad, the equalizer settings will be written to the songs’ metadata and you will get a better listening experience on your device.

Unfortunately, there’s no option to set equalizer settings for multiple songs at once. If you have a large music library, you’re going to have to invest some time and set the equalizer for all songs, one-by-one.

Song Info

An alternative method to specify equalizer settings per-song is to right-click a song and select the ‘Song info’ option from the context menu. On the song info window, select the ‘Options’ tab. At the bottom, you will see an ‘equalizer’ option with a dropdown that lets you pick one of the equalizer settings that iTunes supports.

We’d be lying if we said this second method is faster. Regardless which method you go with, it’s going to take time to do this for every single song in your library. If you’re not up to making the effort, set the equalizer for your favorite, most played songs which iTunes can identify for you.

]]>https://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/specify-equalizer-settings-per-song-in-itunes/feed/0https://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/specify-equalizer-settings-per-song-in-itunes/How To Convert Photos From HEIC To JPGhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/addictivetips/OSX/~3/qUiSaw3E6KQ/https://www.addictivetips.com/web/convert-photos-from-heic-to-jpg/#respondFri, 29 Dec 2017 16:46:02 +0000https://www.addictivetips.com/?p=233165Whenever a popular OS adopts a new file format, it comes with growing pains. This year, Apple introduced the HEIC image standard for the HEIF and HEIV file formats. If you own a somewhat recent iPhone that’s running iOS 11+, it will save photos to the HEIC file format instead of the usual JPEG format. […]

]]>Whenever a popular OS adopts a new file format, it comes with growing pains. This year, Apple introduced the HEIC image standard for the HEIF and HEIV file formats. If you own a somewhat recent iPhone that’s running iOS 11+, it will save photos to the HEIC file format instead of the usual JPEG format. iOS powers a lot of devices and an iPhone is an exceptionally popular device for taking photos. This means there are a lot of photos in HEIC and you can’t just open them on a non-Apple device. If you’re on Windows 10, you have to install a codec that lets you view HEIC images. If you’re sharing one of these files though, it’s a good idea to convert photos from HEIC to JPG so your recipient can open them.

HEIC To JPG

There are quite a few tools that let you convert a photo from HEIC to JPG format. In fact, if you email or iMessage an image, iOS will convert it to JPG. That said, if you want to just convert a photo from HEIC to JPG you have a few options.

Disable HEIC Format

You can stop iOS from saving photos to HEIC format. Open the Settings app and go to Camera>Format and select ‘Most compatible’ under Formats. This will stop the Camera app from saving photos to the HEIC format however, it will not automatically convert the ones that already exist.The setting will apply to photos you take after making the change.

Convert To JPG

There are a lot of iOS app and web apps that can convert a photo from HEIC to JPG. The best choice is to use the JPEGmini web app. This app has been around for quite some time and it compresses JPGs in excellent quality. It can convert upto 50 photos at once and it works on both mobile and desktop browsers. The app takes quite a while to convert the photos so you’re going to have to be patient. It took a solid minute to convert one photo from HEIC to JPEG so 50 will take longer.

Export via iCloud & Photo Stream

If you enable Photo Stream on your iOS device and upload your photos to iCloud, they will be uploaded in JPG format. You can then download them to a computer, PC or Mac, later.

Other Tools

As mentioned earlier, there are other tools that can convert photos from HEIC to JPEG, and some of them are paid. The only reason you should ever use paid apps is if they can deliver good quality photos. Don’t pay for a converter app, pay for one that gives you good quality that others can’t.

]]>https://www.addictivetips.com/web/convert-photos-from-heic-to-jpg/feed/0https://www.addictivetips.com/web/convert-photos-from-heic-to-jpg/How To Get Apple Verification Code On A Devicehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/addictivetips/OSX/~3/f04Gi7nF8BM/https://www.addictivetips.com/ios/get-apple-verification-code-on-a-device/#respondSat, 16 Dec 2017 11:00:05 +0000https://www.addictivetips.com/?p=230345When you sign in to your Apple ID on iTunes, the device you sign into is automatically added as a trusted device. If you have an iPhone, you can view all your current trusted devices by going to the Settings app and tapping your ID at the top. You will find a list of trusted […]

]]>When you sign in to your Apple ID on iTunes, the device you sign into is automatically added as a trusted device. If you have an iPhone, you can view all your current trusted devices by going to the Settings app and tapping your ID at the top. You will find a list of trusted devices on the Apple ID screen. If you have two factor authentication enabled these devices are devices you can log into without needing to verify your account with the verification code. What you cannot do is receive an verification code on these devices. To get the Apple verification code on a device there’s one small, undocumented step that you need to do; enable Find my Phone/Mac.

Apple Verification Code On A Device

When you enable two factor authentication for your Apple ID, it sets the device you enabled it on as the trusted device that all future verification codes will be sent to. For most users, this is their iPhone however that doesn’t mean you can’t get the Apple verification code on a Mac.

For any device that you want to get the Apple verification code on, ensure that;

It’s running iOS 9+ or OS X El Capitan

iCloud is enabled on the device

Find my Phone/Mac is enabled

If you’re on a Mac, you must be connected to the internet via a WiFi network in order for Find My Mac to work

For a Mac, you must be signed into iCloud via the System Preferences. Being signed into the Mac App Store app or iTunes isn’t enough.

The same holds true for iPhones as well. The iPhone you want to get the Apple verification code on must have your account signed in in the Settings app. It must be the account that Find My Phone is linked to. If you’re only signed into the App Store or iMessages, it isn’t enough.

SMS Code

In the even that you don’t receive the verification code needed to sign into a device, you can instead opt to have the code sent to you via SMS. This option is a phone-only option. The message is sent as an SMS over your carrier’s network and not iMessages. The SMS code option doesn’t have an iMessage alternative.

What this means is that this particular mode of getting the verification code is limited to an iPhone. To that effect, you shouldn’t remove your iPhone from the list of trusted devices that you can receive the verification code on. If you’re in a pinch and you want to get the code via SMS, you will have to add your iPhone as a trusted device which will require a verification code to complete.

]]>https://www.addictivetips.com/ios/get-apple-verification-code-on-a-device/feed/0https://www.addictivetips.com/ios/get-apple-verification-code-on-a-device/How To Turn Your Screen Black & Whitehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/addictivetips/OSX/~3/378OwSlOMTM/https://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/turn-your-screen-black-white/#commentsFri, 15 Dec 2017 18:20:44 +0000https://www.addictivetips.com/?p=230223Procrastination can be attributed to work being boring. In comparison, everything else looks so interesting but once you’re done with work the interesting stuff quickly fades away. If you’re prone to procrastinating to the point where you regularly miss deadlines, try tinting your screen black & white. You’ll be surprised how uninteresting everything suddenly looks […]

]]>Procrastination can be attributed to work being boring. In comparison, everything else looks so interesting but once you’re done with work the interesting stuff quickly fades away. If you’re prone to procrastinating to the point where you regularly miss deadlines, try tinting your screen black & white. You’ll be surprised how uninteresting everything suddenly looks and how much you’re able to focus on your work more. Of course, this isn’t recommended for design professionals who need the color on their screen, but if you have a boring report to write or a research paper to finish, turn your screen black & white and give it a go.

Black & White Screen – Windows 10

Windows 10 has a built-in color filter feature. It’s aimed at users who suffer from color blindness but it also has a grayscale option that can turn your screen black & white.

Open the Settings app and go to the Ease of Access group of settings. Go to the Color & high contrast tab, and turn on the ‘Apply color filter’ switch. From the ‘Choose a filter’ dropdown, select ‘Grayscale.

The filter is applied right away and you do not need to restart your system or log out and log back in again. It can be turned off just as easily.

Windows 7

Windows 7 has Ease of Access features however it doesn’t have a color filter like Windows 10 does. In this case, the simplest way to turn your screen black & white is to reduce your screen’s saturation to 0. Do this via your graphics card’s control panel. If you use an external monitor, don’t change its saturation levels from the monitor’s own controls.

For Intel Graphics, right-click on an empty area on your desktop and select Intel Graphics Settings. On the settings panel, go to Display>Color Settings. Drag the saturation slider all the way to the left so that its value is set to 0 and you will be left with a black & white screen.

If you use an NVIDIA or AMD graphics card, look for a similar option in the control panel for your GPU.

In the event your graphics card doesn’t let you change the saturation, try the NegativeScreen app which has a grayscale option and works with WindowsXP and above.

Black & White Screen – macOS

Apple products have pretty great accessibility options one of which includes a screen filter. Open the System preferences and go to Accessibility. Select Display from the column on the left, and from the options on the right, select ‘Use grayscale’.

Like the Windows 10 option, your screen turns black & white right away. You don’t have to log out or restart your Mac and turning the option off is just as easy as turning it on.

]]>https://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/turn-your-screen-black-white/feed/1https://www.addictivetips.com/windows-tips/turn-your-screen-black-white/How To Use The Color Picker In macOS As A Stand Alone Apphttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/addictivetips/OSX/~3/QorH1pqRssI/https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/use-the-color-picker-in-macos-as-a-stand-alone-app/#commentsFri, 15 Dec 2017 17:35:57 +0000https://www.addictivetips.com/?p=230219macOS has a color picker utility. It’s been there for years but the way it’s incorporated in the OS, it seems like a feature that can only be accessed in select apps. For example, you can access the color picker from the Mail app but not from Safari. You can use the color picker in […]

]]>macOS has a color picker utility. It’s been there for years but the way it’s incorporated in the OS, it seems like a feature that can only be accessed in select apps. For example, you can access the color picker from the Mail app but not from Safari. You can use the color picker in macOS as a stand alone app if you want. There’s a small trick to accessing it but nothing too complicated. Because the color picker has been part of macOS for years, this will work on just about any version of the OS that you might have running. We assume, at the very least, that this will work as far back as Snow Leopard.

Color Picker AppleScript

In order to use the color picker in macOS as a stand alone app, you need to access it via an Apple Script. Open the AppleScript app on your Mac. It’s in the Utilities folder. With the app open, enter the following;

choose color

That’s it. Now you have to save the script. Go to File>Save. Save the script as an application, and save it to the Applications folder. It’s best to name it Color Picker so that it’s easier to identify and access later but you’re free to name it anything else that might suit you.

Open Launchpad and you will see a new Apple script icon with the same name that you saved the script with. Click it to open the Color Picker.

Color Picker In macOS

The color picker in macOS has basic features; it supports web colors, CMYK, RGB and HEX, there’s a color wheel, a color spectrum, a color palette, and the crayon layout. You can explore colors with all these different layout. To actually pick a color off an image on your screen, click the eyedropper button at the very bottom next to the current color swatch. It will transform the cursor into a magnified lens. Click anywhere to pick the color.

While this script was saved as an application, it doesn’t have the properties that a typical macOS app has. You will notice this when you’re trying to exit the color picker and the Quit option on the dock icon won’t help. The close button likewise is inactive. In order to close the color picker, you have to tap the Escape key.

A part from this one quirk, the color picker works like any other app. If you have the time, you can change the icon of the AppleSript app you created and make the color picker in macOS easier to identify in the launchpad.

]]>https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/use-the-color-picker-in-macos-as-a-stand-alone-app/feed/3https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/use-the-color-picker-in-macos-as-a-stand-alone-app/How To Find When Your Apple ID Was Createdhttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/addictivetips/OSX/~3/pBIFaYCRtvs/https://www.addictivetips.com/ios/find-when-your-apple-id-was-created/#commentsThu, 30 Nov 2017 23:18:52 +0000https://www.addictivetips.com/?p=228517No one really marks the date when they make an email account or a Facebook account. It’s not information you need, until you do need it. For example, the date you created your Gmail account on is used to help you recover your lost password. Apple doesn’t ask you when you created your Apple ID […]

]]>No one really marks the date when they make an email account or a Facebook account. It’s not information you need, until you do need it. For example, the date you created your Gmail account on is used to help you recover your lost password. Apple doesn’t ask you when you created your Apple ID if you’re recovering your password but, a need might arise where you need to find when your Apple ID was created. That’s when you’ll find how incredibly unhelpful your Apple account information is. Here’s a work around.

Check Your Email

Your Apple ID is tied to an email. If you haven’t recently changed your Apple ID email address, you should search your inbox for the earliest email from Apple regarding activity on your account. It’s a long shot but if the email is there, it can give you a fairly accurate idea as to when your account was created.

Purchase History

If you created an Apple ID, it’s safe to assume you did it to download an app. In that case, your purchase history will likely show you when you created your Apple ID. The only trick is finding your purchase history.

On iOS 11, open the App Store app. Tap your profile at the top right and on your Account page, tap your ID at the top. Scroll down on the following screen and tap Purchase History.

By default, iOS shows you your purchase history for the last 90 days. Tap ’90 days’ to select a custom date range. You start off by selecting an year. Since you’re trying to find when you created your Apple ID, tap the earliest year that appears in Date Range.

Next, select the earliest month that appears under the year and you have a good estimate as to when you created your Apple ID. All purchases you make i.e. all apps you download appear in your Purchase History. It doesn’t matter if you bought an app or downloaded one that was free.

There used to be an option to view your purchase history in iTunes but since Apple has removed the App Store from iTunes altogether, this is the only work around.

Banking Information

If by chance the first app you ever downloaded after creating your Apple ID was a paid one, you might be able to find information about the purchase in your bank account. If this is the case however, you’re better off looking through your email for the invoice that Apple sends after you make a purchase. This is of course a rare case and the least practical solution.

]]>https://www.addictivetips.com/ios/find-when-your-apple-id-was-created/feed/1https://www.addictivetips.com/ios/find-when-your-apple-id-was-created/How To Fix The macOS High Sierra Root Login Bughttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/addictivetips/OSX/~3/G4MAKLT0f_w/https://www.addictivetips.com/mac-os/fix-the-macos-high-sierra-root-login-bug/#respondTue, 28 Nov 2017 21:16:08 +0000https://www.addictivetips.com/?p=227909It seems Apple cannot catch a break. iOS has had its fair share of bugs but a new bug in macOS High Sierra has just been discovered that allows anyone to gain access to the root user without needing the password for the current user account. It doesn’t matter if the account is the administrator […]

]]>It seems Apple cannot catch a break. iOS has had its fair share of bugs but a new bug in macOS High Sierra has just been discovered that allows anyone to gain access to the root user without needing the password for the current user account. It doesn’t matter if the account is the administrator account or not. This exploit gives complete system access and allows the would-be attacker to create and use the root account. The good news is it’s pretty easy to fix the macOS High Sierra root login bug.

Update: Apple has released a patch. Check for an update for High Sierra and install it right away.

High Sierra Root Login Bug

When you make changes in System Preferences, you have to sometimes provide admin access or at the very least enter the password for your current user. What this bug does is, when you go to the Users & Groups preference where you can create and modify users, it lets you unlock the root user. You don’t have to enter your password in order to make changes. If instead you enter ‘root’ in the username and leave the password field empty, it will be accepted. You will then be able to make changes to the user and just about everything else on the system. Additionally, it will add the ‘root’ user to the accounts screen where you can again log in to it without a password.

The Fix

The fix is pretty simple; enable the root user yourself and add a password to it. It’s basically you getting to the root user before anyone else is able to use it to exploit your system.

Open System Preference and go to Users & Groups. Click the lock icon at the bottom left and enter your password when prompted. Next, click the ‘Login Options’ at the very bottom of the left panel. Click ‘Join’ next to Network Account Server.

A new panel will open asking for the server address. Click the Open Directory Utility button.

Enter a password for the root user and you’ll have complete control over it.

Once you enable the root user and set a password for it, you become immune to the macOS High Sierra Root login bug. The fix is as simple as the exploit but Apple needs to patch this asap. This bug can be exploited by anyone who gains access to your unlocked system, or by someone who is logged in remotely.